Year 2008: friends and foes in Russia

In 2008 in Russia, at least 87 murders were committed on motives of interethnic enmity and at least 378 persons were wounded as a result of racist attacks. These are preliminary figures of the "Sova" Information and Analytical Centre, which, in the opinion of the authors, will surely increase. In 2007, according to the same source, 86 casualties and 599 wounded persons were registered.

According to the "Sova", as of December 1, natives of the Caucasus were in the second place by the number of casualties. Natives of Central Asia were in the lead with 46 persons murdered and 99 more wounded.

According to the Moscow Human Rights Bureau, only in the period from January to November 2008 at least 281 xenophobia-motivated attacks were registered, resulting in 118 casualties and at least 364 wounded persons.

<<ЦИТАТА ВРЕЗКА>> Meanwhile, the experts of the "Levada-Centre" mark a certain decrease in the feeling of hostility of Russians towards other ethnic groups as compared with 2007, and return to the situation of 2002, when the lowest intensity was fixed. This is the result of the sociology poll on the topic "Interethnic Tension" held on October 17-20, 2008, among 1600 Russians.

The answers to the question "Do you currently feel hostility from other nationals?" were split as follows: "I never or almost never felt this sort of hostility" - 58% of respondents, "I seldom experienced such aggression" - 26%, "rather often" - 9%, "very often" - 2%.

The answers to the question "Do you now feel hostility to other nationals?" we split as follows: "never or practically never" - 55% of respondents (in 2007 and 2004 - 53%, in 2006 and 2002 - 59% and in 2005 - 60%), "seldom" - 32% (in 2007 - 32%, in 2006 - 27%, in 2005 - 25%, and in 2004 and 2002 - 29%), "rather often" - 8% (in 2007, 2005 and 2002 - 9%, in 2006 - 8% and in 2004 - 13%), and "very often" - 2% (in 2007 and 2006 - 3%, in 2004, in 2005 - 4% and in 2002 - 3%).